UK teacher unionist wins Global Teacher Prize award

Andria Zafirakou, a member of the National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) who teaches at Alperton Community School, a secondary school academy in the inner city borough of Brent, north London, became the first UK winner of the Global Teacher Prize.  She was selected among teachers nominated from more than 170 countries. The prize, launched in 2015 by an education charity, the Varkey Foundation, was created to highlight the teaching profession. 

Zafirakou teaches in an ethnically diverse district where students speak 130 languages. Students come from some of the most disadvantaged sectors in Britain, and face challenges from violence to poverty in their communities.   

Teaching art and textiles, which she sees as “powerful subjects” that “help the students unlock all of their language barriers,” she redesigned the curriculum across all subjects – carefully working alongside other teachers – to make it meaninful for her students.  

Also learning the basics of many of the 35 languages in Alperton’s pupil population, Zafirakou has been able to reach out to her once marginalised students and, crucially, establish relationships with their parents. 

Thanks to her sustained efforts, Alperton is now in the top 1 to 5% of the country in terms of qualifications and accreditations, and has even been awarded ‘specialist school’ status in visual arts. This as a colossal achievement given how low the students’ starting points were and how rapidly they progressed during their five to seven years at the school, a point recognised by the national inspection team. 

The power of the arts 

“There is no other job like being a teacher,” Zafirakou acknowledged. “In what other profession are you selfless and completely devoted to creating the right opportunities for another person to achieve? Being in a classroom and watching a student have an idea and transform it into a formidable outcome is so satisfying and fulfills me.” 

In her acceptance speech, she called for more support for the “power of the arts” in school, particularly for the “poorest communities”. She was adamant that schools could make a great positive difference – particular through creative subjects. 

She went on stressing that schools should be “safe havens,” spoke of the hardship and overcrowded housing conditions facing many of her students, and warned of “deprivation” and “tough lives” where “children may not eat well because their lunch boxes are empty”. 

NASUWT: world-class quality of teachers across the UK 

“On behalf of the NASUWT, I would like to extend our congratulations to Andria on winning the Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize 2018,” said NASUWT General Secretary Chris Keates, underlining that “the Global Teacher Prize recognises the hard work of teachers who are committed to making a difference in the lives of the children they teach”.  

I am sure that the staff, students and community at Alperton Community School will be extremely proud of her achievement, she insisted, noting that  Zafirakou‘s success in winning the Global Teacher Prize “reminds us also of the world-class quality of teachers across the UK, dedicated to the pupils they teach.”